


The Experimental Method

by mathildia



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, For Science!, Hurt/Comfort, Light Bondage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-27
Updated: 2014-07-27
Packaged: 2018-02-10 16:02:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2031240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mathildia/pseuds/mathildia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if they had made him a lab rat rather than a dancing monkey?</p><p>After Eskine’s death, the body is all they have left.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Experimental Method

Of course they wanted to find out how it had been done. And who should be surprised about that? Erskine hadn’t left notes, had worked alone. Without him, all that was left of his work was the body. Steve Rogers's body. The only place they could look for answers was there. To find out what it meant. How to do it again. How to contain it. Colonel Philips insisted they begin immediately. Experiments. Study. 

And then, Steve Roger’s body was not his own. But he knew that. He known that the moment the procedure was complete. He knew it every time he looked at himself. His body was gone. This one he had now, this was government property. 

The way they studied him was invasive and cruel. It often hurt. They tested him. They wanted to find his limits. What could hurt him? What could contain him? Steve’s body was a weapon now. And the capabilities of that weapon had to be deduced. 

A weapon. That was what he was. All he was. A weapon was a thing.

Some times he believed that was true. He was a piece of property. Guarded even from himself. They locked him up at night. They strapped him down. “For your own safety,” Colonel Philips had said. 

How fast could he run? How high could he jump? How long could he go before he dropped? Could he manage without food? Water? Air? Once he spent the whole day passing out in a gas mask, while Howard wrote notes and adjusted canisters. 

After several hours Howard had said, “Do you need to stop? We can stop?”

Steve was getting back up off the floor. “It’s fine,” he said, although it wasn’t really and his chest hurt. And he saw Howard writing that down.

Another day they wanted to see how much electricity would make him pass out, he broke Howard’s machine before they found out. And he apologised. 

Sometimes, the best times, Peggy came. Always in the evenings. Always when they were done and he’d been locked up for the night. Often he was all bruises. She always brought ointment and bandages. It was nice of her to do that. He knew that she was busy and she didn’t have to take care of him. There were medics to do that. 

But he liked it when she dressed his wounds. The way she touched him when she did it. She said soft soothing things. Sometimes. Some nights, it seemed like she looked at his body a long time and didn’t look at him much at all. Not at his face.

She often apologised for what they were doing to him. Testing him. Trying to find his limits. Trying to find things that could hurt him and contain him. 

One night when he was cut and bruised from a study to discover how many men it took to bring him down – another one - she said, “The first thing any government does when it develops a new weapon is work out how to defend itself against it.”

She put down the ointment that she had been dabbing on a nasty laceration on his chest, and took up some gauze. “We’ve looked at your blood. We’ve taken samples from your cells. We can’t recreate you. But we don’t know if the Nazi’s can. We don’t know what Erskine did for them before he came to us. He left no notes here, but maybe he did when he worked for them. They could have an army of you. That’s why we need to do this. You’re all we have.” Peggy finished the dressing and adjusted the straps on his wrists. She didn’t look happy or sad. Peggy was very professional. 

“I understand,” said Steve. “I signed up for this. I agreed.” Before the procedure Steve had signed a mass of waivers. He hadn’t read them. He assumed what was happening now was covered there. “It’s lonely though. Everyone acts like I’m a test subject. I think they are scared of me. All of them. No one acts like I’m a person. Except you.”

Peggy smiled. “Steve, I’m very sorry. About all of this. This wasn’t ever what I wanted for you.” 

And she leant over the cot and kissed him. 

It took him a second to understand what was happening. And then he let his mouth open under hers and kissed her back. She kissed him long and slow and it was like the kisses he had always dreamed of. The kisses he had never received. The kisses that had always been for other men. For better men than him. He’d seen Bucky kissing women on the walkway outside their apartment. He’d watched their mouths move and wondered what it felt like. 

Peggy’s teeth grazed his bottom lip. It was better than anything he’d dreamed of. He moaned into her mouth. His dick was hard. He twisted his wrists inside the restraints. 

“I wish I had the keys to those,” Peggy whispered into his mouth. 

Steve opened his eyes. She was so close to him she was blur. “I can easily break these, ma’am. If you’d like me too.” 

Peggy started, drawing herself upright. “You can break those restraints?”

“Yes,” said Steve. “See.” And he pulled his right wrist free, shredding the restraint like paper. 

Peggy inhaled. “I see. And you could have done that anytime, but you haven’t?”

“No ma’am. Thought it better not to, ma’am.” He wasn’t really sure what to do with his hand now he had it free. He really wanted to touch her, but she hadn’t done anything to make him think she wanted that. So he let it lie next to the restraint cuff as if it was still held there.

“Are their other things you could so that you’re not doing, because you thought you’d better not, Private?”

Steve sucked his teeth a moment. “Reckon I could get that door off its hinges.” Steve pointed at the double locked, steel door of his room.

“Anything else? Could you fight your way out of the facility?”

“I could try, ma’am. Pretty sure I could.”

“And could you make love to me, Private Rogers? Could you do that?”

Without really thinking, Steve pulled his left wrist out of its restraint. He touched his top teeth with his tongue. “Reckon I could try that too, ma’am. If you gave me the order.”

*

Howard was still in his lab, working late on the files, trying to make sense of the data he had gathered. He looked up when Peggy walked in. He could tell from the look on her face that her hypothesis had been proved right.

“Ah,” he said. 

Peggy nodded. “Sorry, Howard. It looks like I was right. I rather think you’ve been wasting your time.”


End file.
